Process of producing material for covering floors.



its STATES PATENT Fries.

AUGUST MAYKE AND FRITZ LANGHEINRICH, OF COTTBUS, GERMANY, ASSIGNORS TOTHE BREMER LINOLEUMWERKE DELMENHORST, OF

'DELMENHORST, GERMANY.

PROCESS OF PRODUCING MATERIAL FOR COVERING FLOO RS.

fiPEOIFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 644,827, dated March6, 1900.

Application filed December 5, 1899- Serial No. 739,302. (No specimens.)

To all whom it mag concern:

Be it known that we, AUGUST MAYKE and FRITZ LANGHEINRICH, subjects ofthe King of Prussia, German Emperor, residing at Cottbus,in the Kingdomof Prussia, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin and Connected with Processes for the Production of a Material forCovering Floors and for other Purposes, of which the followingis aspecification.

It is well known to produce floor-coverings or floor-cloth (theso-called linoleum) from wood-dust instead of from cork, which materialhas been principally employed. The wood-dust is produced by grindingwood into a flour-like mass, and this is moistened by means oflinseed-oil or any other kind of oil mixture or other binder. The massthus obtained is spread over a textile material, whereupon the mass isdried and oxidized by exposing the same within drying-rooms to heat aswell as to open air and also to light. The common wood-dust, however,presents the disadvantage that it is not suitable for absorbing the oilsufficiently. Therefore the oil does not get mixed with the wood-dust inan intimate and finely-distributed manner, and it forms a mixture ofparticles of wood and of oil which is not homogeneous and in which theoil must be present in a proportionatelylarge quantity in order toeffect an active combination of the particles of wood with one another.Consequently the drying and oxidation of the mass-that is, the bindingof the same-takes a very long time, so that the production of thefloor-cloth is rendered exceedingly expensive. According to our presentinvention a material has been provided which is suitable for readilyabsorbing the oil and which will quickly mix with the oil in anextremely-fine distribution, while the oil, being in exccess andtherefore not sucked up by the material, does not remain within themass, as it is not required for the combination of the wood particleswith one another. Therefore the mass will dry and oxidize very muchquicker than hitherto, so that the production of the floor-cloth will beaccelerated and rendered inexpensive.

In consequence of the equally-fine distribution of the oil within thematerial the floor-cloth is made more elastic than the common cloth usedup till now, and

it will be seen that the elasticity of the doorcloth proves tobe a veryvaluable property of the same. The new material consists of wood-shredsmade from wood dust. This material may be produced by pressing thewooddust into a mass, preferably in the form of blocks, which may betorn again by willowing-machines, so that a kind of wool is obtainedconsisting of the finest wood-shreds. The character of this material isentirely different from that of the wood-dust. While wood-dust consistsof particles which. are round, oval, square, &c., the saidwood-shredsconsist only of small felted hair-like portions. These hairs or fibersmay be united into a compact mass by simply pressing the same by hand,which cannot be done with the common wood-dust.

The process is carried out in its details as stated in the following:Common wood-stuff, (wood-dust,) being in a moistened state, isimpregnated with the color to be given to the floor-covering orfloor-cloth, whereupon. the so-colored wood-stuff is pressed into blocksof any suitable size or shape by means of any suitable pressingarrangements. The blocks after having been dried are torn or willowed toshreds. This may be done by means of willowing-machines of the kind usedin cloth manufacture for willowing wool, or rollers of sheet-steel maybe employed, which are cut or roughened in the manner of fine gratersand which also tear or pluck the blocks into shreds. The finer theshreds are plucked the more valuable and beautiful the appearance of thefloor-cloth will be. If this material obtained in the aforedescribedmanner is impregnated with oil or other binders, each single shredabsorbs only so much oil until it is entirely impregnated. Therefore themass contains only the oil sucked up by the shreds in a finedistribution, but the mass does not contain any oil in excess. When forthis reason the mass is exposed to the open air to light and heat, the,oxidation of the oil, and consequently the binding of the mass, takesplace more rapidly than hitherto. Now the mass is spread over teXtilematerials and is united with the latter by means of heat and pressure,so that a compact and elastic floor-c1oth is formed, which will be readyfor use within eight days. According to our invention the production ofthe floor-cloth requires at the most five weeks time.

It appears to be preferable to employ for our process as a binderlinseed-oil which has been prepared by boiling with litharge, wax, soda,or caoutchoue.

Instead of dyeing the wood-dust before pressing the same into blocks, inorder to obtain the required color of the floor-cloth, the dyeing may bedone on the material which is obtained after the blocks have been tornor willowed. The latter would be more advantageous, as the shreds easilysuck up the dyeing liquid and are equally impregnated by the same. Inthis case a repeated drying of the shreds is necessary before the sameare impregnated with the oil, as the shreds would not suck up the oil ina wet state. This special drying, which renders the production of thefloor-cloth rather expensive, is dispensed with if the coloring is doneon the Wood-dust, as the latter must be moistened anyhow before beingpressed into blocks.

The floor-cloth produced according to our process may be made with anydesired coloration or designs. The color cannot be Worn out, as the massis equally colored throughout. Besides, the coloring is obtained in themost easy and simple manner.

Instead of employing the material produced according to our process asfloor-cloth it may also be used for various other purposes. Instead ofordinary wood-shreds other ligneous materials could be used also.

Having now described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

The process herein described of producing material for floor-cloth orthe like consisting in pressing wood-dust or other ligneous materialinto a mass, willowing said mass to pro duce shredded material and thenmixing said. WilloWed shreds with oil or a binding material,substantially as described.

In witness whereof We have hereunto set our hands in presence of twowitnesses.

AUGUST MAYKE. FRITZ LANGI-IEINRICH.

Witnesses:

WOLDEMAR HAUPT, HENRY HASPERi

